Misson

What an odd dream...this guy was trying to sell me on the idea of creating a wind-driven railroad with 8 methane-powered engines housing giant fans that blew into a train car that was attached to a giant parachute in front and a line of cars in the rear. The "fan engines" ran in between the freight cars and the parachute car. There had to be two sets of tracks with four "fan engines" on each and the one parachute car in front. (Now that I think of it, if this idea wasn't already too absurdly complicated, it would make more sense to have two cars in front supporting one giant parachute between them in the center to catch the most amount of wind generated.) The fan cars ran on methane because someone had set up the tracks so that they regularly passed sheep farms where they could get manure that would create the methane gas. Talk about stinky fans... I tell ya'... The weird thing is, I'm not even reading about railroads, alternative energy or anything like that! I'm reading one book about communications and another about barber-surgeons. Where's the connection? Maybe I've been eating too close to bedtime lately.

You know, I was watching the first movie the other day and it occurred to me...Norrington's the only main character who is actually ethical in that movie. Everyone else is either admittedly unethical (Sparrow) or situationally ethical (The Swanns & Will). But Norrington warns Gibbs about using mysticism to upset the passengers and crew in the beginning, pretty much follows the King's orders throughout (this was unbelievably important during this era as I'm finding out in my reading. The King was a chosen instrument of God by their beliefs), and is even willing to give up Elizabeth when he determines that she really doesn't love him at all. (Which actually would have been extremely unlikely during the era as well, but this is a modern movie. Point of fact, Elizabeth wouldn't have been attracted to a tradesman based on her upbringing.) Even when he lets Depp go, he only gives him a head start to be sporting, as I read it. Of course, being a pirate movie, that sort of makes him a villain and hard to like in the framework of the movie. He's really sort of a neat character. When he really became interesting in the second movie, he was still carrying out the orders of the King and the favored East India company, albeit in a surreptitious way if I remember it right. (I haven't seen that movie since it was in the theaters. Norrington is neat, but not enough to carry that opus for me.)

I wonder what it's like to have a tail? Do you suppose when a cat is watching something and its tail flips back and forth that is intentional? Or is it more like a habit - like people who twist their hair when they're reading? So many things to learn.

Thanks, Callenish! Anyone who wants to can feel free to link to that. It's my real experience, but I sort of hoped it would also impart how fun the event was and encouage others to participate. Ok, I have the card and it is indeed Silver Hawk (two words) of the Pyrates of Tortuga. As soon as I get back to the office, I will correct the spelling on my web page. He is their Quarter Master.

You know, Amajiria's (Jack's) stuff was really well done. While were dreaming up presentations for next year, what about having Jack explain some of the PC tentage, it's production and so forth? He really did a bang up job with it. (Someone else will have to film him, of course. )

No, I'm pretty sure he is with the Pyrates of Tortuga. I actually have his card, but it's not in the same place as my web editing software. I'm not positive about his name, but I thought I looked it up on the card...my memory is a tad shaky...I originally did call him Silverhawk, but he told me his name in the pub and my memory was really shaky then. I will check and correct. Huh, I thought Cascabel and Blaze were with Bone Island! I'll have to change one of the photo captions, too... Thanks for the corrections!

Okay, I finished my project. There are all these wonderful photos floating around and there was my PiP journal and I thought it would be neat to combine them to give the photos a reference point and focus. I did quite a bit of editing to the material to better structure it and I think it came out sort of neat. I had no idea how long this would take... Anyhow, you can see this mess on my website here. Thanks to everyone who posted photos. (I gave credit on the last page to y'all, but a hearty pub thank you once again to Tony Callahan, William Red Wake, Mad Mary Diamond, Captain Sterling, M.A.d'Dogge, jetgoff and Captain Jim. If you would like your non-pub name in the credit list, feel free to pm me.) *Whew* That's done. At last I can stop suffering and write that symphony.

Yes, the diagrams are most interesting. They really help explain what the author is talking about. I am still trying to procure a copy of The Surgeon's Mate, which would be absolutely correct to period. I was looking through Twill to see what had been put in there previously and I forgot how picky they can be over reference to period. (I think some of this is fine, but too much is too much. Still, if I can lay my hands on the material from TSM and decipher the spelling and meaning of some of the more obscure words, I think it would be cool.) U of Mich has one of the 6 copies on Microfiche in the country, but I haven't figured out how to get at it so's I can print it. The thing is also available through ProQuest.com (in what format, I know not), but the only libraries that seem to have access to that are large university libraries. And they seem to be rather prickly about your being a student to access that database...so far. (All this stuff available only to major university college students, most of whom don't understand why it would be at all useful.)

Hmm...I don't recall seeing the link. (Unless you sent it to my Caraccioli user ID that I haven't logged into in awhile.) Could you post it for one and all to see here? I currently have almost 20 pages of notes copied into Word for the Surgeon's Primer I'm going to eventually post in Twill. Plus I have another two resource books on their way for the same... I had planned to copy this material into that journal using my fancy, dancy calligraphy pen...I think I may need a new plan.

Hey, thanks Fayma! I got my notebook...along with my padded bike glove, long thought gone bike headlight and the leather thong. (Yes, fellow participants, I got my leather thong; I'm sure you're all relieved. Fortunately, I never needed it...) Thanks again, Fayma! I think I left half my stuff in your camp!

You basically show up in Key West with your gear and garb. There's a period encampment and a modern encampment and there are period garbed and movie-garbed pirates. Many of the people on this board go for the period look, but not all of them. If you want to do the period thing, just hang around in here and (more particularly) in the Captain Twill forum and you'll get way more info than you ever dreamed existed.

See Hot Fuzz! Hilarious! I think every movie studio in Hollywood should look at the way that Wright & Pegg do DVD extras. They are always much fun to watch! Most studios can't do in two and three extra DVDs what they can do in the extras on a single DVD which also includes the movie.

Hear, hear! Except I thought the maelstrom fight was sort of absurd on several levels as I mentioned elsewhere. I would much rather have seen a big fight between the armada, the pirates and shipwreck island. (Axe the whole Jones/Calypso storyline. Jones may as well have been dispatched in the second movie so that could confine all that stuff to DMC. It wouldn't have detracted from the third movie at all - in fact it would have made it clearer.) Here I disagree. As you state later, "too many ideas and not enough time," and the whole Davy Jones/Calypso storyline combined with the Becket storyline (which had potential they basically left lying on the floor) was too much. (It's sort of a pat solution: the whole point of the trilogy as seen at the end of AWE is that big business trumps mysticism, but the pirates get to go free - for awhile. Most of us know what happened to the GAoP pirates). It does wind up being a sort of potboiler once you get past all the "complex" storylines. I don't see where you get that from. I thought the first film was great. After seeing some of the effects on TV, I even went in the first time a bit skeptical based on other pirate movies that I had seen before the first movie. However, I went on to see it 7 times in the theater. (I've never seen any other movie more than twice in the theater.) Besides, isn't that statement a bit like the statement that "Only people who believe in ghosts can see them?"

"If it's the captain's mess, let him clean it up!" For some reason, I signed up to this free magazine through Amazon.com called Domino that has all kinds of home deco stuff when I was thinking about my House Art Project. It's pretty typical for the most part, except some of the stuff is actually affordable (Compared to most home deco mags, this is saying something. Who, exactly, pays $10,000 for a wooden living room chair? And, more importantly, why? But I digress...) Domino has paid several returns to me throughout my tenure as a subscriber (including giving me a wicked cool idea for a haunted house room) and here is a link to another one, culled from the adverts: ZGallerie Home Furnishing Pirate Housewares They have all kinds of cool skull and bones stuff like plates, place settings, jewelry, a wooden skull clock and, my personal favorite, a skull and bones cocktail shaker with two tumblers. Some of it looks a little too bling for me, but a lot of it is pretty cool. (See, Lily, I knew there was a market. )

According to Google, they're football players for the Chicago Bears.

I wonder if Silver Hook would know when it was in Marathon; he lives there. I have his card somewhere, maybe I'll shoot him an email.

Wow! I think I just saw the the most hackneyed, yet slickly made movie ever. It had all of your favorite cliche concepts kitbashed with all of your favorite new technology buzzwords. Check it out: kids smarter than adults (the younger, the smarter) because of brain development patterns, future generation's DNA destroyed because of pollution, a brilliant scientist who can save humanity through a child's tear, mislead government officials, time travel, nano-technology, mysticism and an explanation of ancient symbology, the meaning of part of the Jabberwocky poem, how to commuicate with animals, a mystical box that unlocks a secret puzzle, future generations of multicultural societies wearing natural fabrics while living in the natural environment...and it even explained why we see bug-eyed aliens. Yep, you get it all in this movie; it's the consumate cornball flick: The Last Mimzy. Get super cheesy popcorn if you decide to watch it.

Ahem... would ye be wanting to do one of these next year? I have a good idea of how to make one work... other than the real deal...although we could loan you William for that...we'll just use a shorter chain when we chain him to his tree... Hmm. I don't actually have a trepanner at this point. It would be a challenge, though...I'd like to practice some of this stuff before actually pretending I know what I'm doing. I suppose you'd mock it up using the technique Romero used to shoot that scene of the Zombie getting the top of his head chopped off by the helicopter blade in Dawn of the Dead. You'd need someone with a low forehead and the ability to give an appropriately glazed look (like in Master and Commander) to make it work. (And make-up....lots of skill blending with make-up.) Be nice if they were bald as well...

Probably not...although Capt Sterling seems to have some grand plans for me...no, I just might want to borrow a BIG saw for a new procedure. Trepannation is for wimps.

The Mercury needs a carpenter, doesn't it? Someone the surgeon can borrow saws from...(Iron John?)

You really need to come to this. You, me & Foxe - celebrating our Dec. birthdays as planned...what was it? Two years ago?...along with William Red Wake, Captain Jim, half the freakin' board...it's be one helluva birthday toast in the midst of one helluva event. Uh huh.

...with some fava beans and a nice Chianti... A spleen? You know, if this capital knife was only sharpened on both sides, I might be able to help...

I doubt that will be a problem...I switched sides just so's I could fire a cannon. My loyalty: pretty cheap. Oohhhhh...cannon!

Boo told me he couldn't figure out how to register, so he didn't. I wish I would have gotten his email, if only to let him look over that article I wrote about him. I told him I was going to do it, but...I still like to give people the chance to correct my memory (which can be dodgey at times).

Here is the price list: http://www.rentmyparadise.com/kwrates.htm Low season at these places is thru mid December which easily covers PiP. However, further reading proves that the other house I linked to (which is indeed a $1200 per week 3/3) is located at mile marker 5. IE - off island. So scrap that idea. There is a house that is actually in Truman Annex that rents for $2200 per week (which is about right from past experience) here: http://www.rentmyparadise.com/502.htm This is also a 3/3 with a sleeper sofa in the "den" making for a 4th possible rental. (I dunno about anyone else, but I wouldn't want to spend a week on a sleeper sofa - call me a soft pirate.) Still, @ 3 rooms, you wind up at $733.33 for the week. @4, it would be $550. FLA tax on rooms used to be 11%, although I don't know if that's changed. As I said, I'm only glancing at these things to gage pricing. Of course, you get no maid service when you rent a house, so if that matters to you... You do, however, get a kitchen, FWIW.